TGIF

The Bad:
I have worked the past few weeks with one of the senior scientists on her proposal that is a show in for funding. Well it is only a shoe in because she has made it through all the other hoops. It is right up my alley, so I am on her "short list" of collaborators. Wheee!

Why then is the draft ready to go out and I am not listed as a primary investigator then? In fact, one woman is listed who said she does not have the time. I have two choices, I can let it be. Or I can call her on it. So I called her on it.

The reason why my name was left off? Unfortunatly it wasn't just an oversight. Nope, she doesn't want to mess with Tony's recommendations. Tony recommended Jana and Cari as collaborators, even though I sat there and expressed an interest and stated my background was relevant. Mary is honest to a fault. So I knew she would be honest with me and that was what I wanted. I value that and respect her for telling me why she left me off. But man that steams me.

Tony is my team lead's manager's manager. Follow? He opposed my initial hire as a post-doc. But then turned around and offered me a full time scientist position a year and a half later. Confused yet? I am. He and I are not close. We are different personality types, but I respect him. Why then would he not want me on this proposal? That is the $100,000 question.

The Good:
So reading this you might think that I am not doing so well in my field. Wrong. I am rocking on my one project that I like. My research has lead to a lot of buzz and two patent filings. I had a meeting this morning with the people on this project - all outside of my group of course. It went outstanding. So well that this group has offered me lab space and funds to buy stuff to do my work. My own group won't even give me my own lab space. Then to top it off I loved this comment today in the meeting... "If April's stuff proves to do what we think it is going to do, they are going to be jumping up and down in California. And I can retire on royalties."

How can I have one project going so wonderfully, yet be struggling to prove myself?

The rest of it:
Well it is Friday and I am thrilled. I have a few things to finish up here. We had plans to go out to dinner for Hans' birthday, but they were thwarted by a sick babysitter. Oh well, we will go next week. I am excited for the weekend.